Australian Formula One star Oscar Piastri has taken the lion’s share of the blame for a reconnaissance lap crash that saw him fail to start his home Grand Prix at Albert Park on Sunday.

The local fans were left stunned as the Melbournian McLaren driver dived into the wall attempting to get his car to the starting grid, having clipped a curb coming out of turn four.

His car appeared to pick up too much torque as the tyre landed back on the track after rising on the curb, meaning Piastri lost control over the backend of the car as it skidded out from under him.

The 24-year-old cut a dejected figure, failing to start a Grand Prix for the first time in his career.

It’s a doubly difficult pill to swallow after narrowly falling short in his title bid last season, as well as having missed the podium at Albert Park in 2025 with a late spin in the wet.

While visibly flat speaking after George Russell claimed the first victory of the season as Mercedes claimed their first season-opening one-two since their last title triumph in 2019, Piastri said the crash was on him as he adjusts to the new cars.

“We had a bit of an issue out of the pits with no battery basically,” he told Sky Sports.

“Then, the actual crash, there was a combination of a couple of things. I think there is a large element of me, cold tyres - I clipped the exit curb.

“But I also had 100kw more power than I expected. You put all of those together, and unfortunately, it ends in the result we got. It’s obviously just disappointing and a scenario that shouldn’t be happening.

“There are a lot of rules about how the power units have to work, and essentially, I was at less throttle than what I was at qualifying, and the way the rules kind of stipulate how the torque demand has to work - I actually got 100kw more power than if I had been at full throttle. So, it’s difficult.”

Piastri showed strong pace across the weekend, producing the fastest time of anyone across two practice sessions on Friday.

He also started well in Saturday’s qualifying session but could not get it all together in Q3, clocking the fifth fastest time.

His teammate and reigning champion, Lando Norris, qualified for Sunday’s Grand Prix in sixth and finished fifth after holding off the charging Red Bull of Max Verstappen.

However, last year’s Constructors’ Champions are off the pace of the front-running Mercedes and Ferrari vehicles.